MYOB Greentree adds big value for produce grower

A.S. Wilcox is a family-owned business,
growing potatoes, carrots and onions in four locations around New
Zealand, for the local market and for export. Its MYOB Greentree
system fills its special tracking and reporting requirements, while
the addition of eDocs has brought major savings in time and paperwork.

Background

Potatoes are Wilcox’s biggest produce line and it markets them in a
wide variety of pack sizes, cooking types and taste preferences. The
orders are processed in two large packing sheds located in the North
and South islands. With a need for detailed batch tracking, swift
processing and complex grower payment calculations, Wilcox gave the
job to Greentree ERP.

External database hard to use

Previously, Wilcox had processed sales reporting and grower payments
outside of Greentree in an Access database. This required a lot of
manual work and reconciliation to ensure the integrity of the data
that was being imported into the ERP system.

"When we get an order it’s got to be out the door within 24 or even 12 hours."

Trees deliver easily manageable information

“We make extensive use of the trees in Greentree,” CFO Bruce Rowe
says. “We report by customer group and product group. Each customer
links in to different trees and we also define the different products
we sell by certain trees and classifications. We also use them to do
our grower payment calculations.

“The trees give you a lot of flexibility and they’re quite
user-friendly. You can change them yourself without having to pay a
developer to do it.”

"The trees in Greentree give you a lot of flexibility and they’re quite user-friendly."

Reporting simplified, paperwork slashed

A key Greentree benefit for Wilcox is its ease of integration with
Excel, where all the financial reporting is managed. Wilcox’s varying
business cycles bear no relation to the standard financial year. Excel
enables the company to create its own business cycles, and moving the
data from Greentree into Excel is a quick and simple task.

“Being able to change the variables easily and then extract that
data has been very valuable,” says Bruce. “Errors in data entry are
greatly reduced, and having everything linked with all the draw-down
capabilities within the one system is also a major benefit.”

The addition of eDocs has delivered even greater efficiency, with AP
paperwork virtually eliminated.